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As negative sentiment toward data center construction reaches a fever pitch, some AI advocates are blaming China for emerging narratives around the rapid growth of the technology\u2019s infrastructure\u2014and the increased negative public attitude surrounding it.<\/p>\n
One of the people blaming China is billionaire investor Kevin O\u2019Leary, who is backing a $100 billion data center project in Utah. Last month, the Shark Tank <\/em>investor said he received an influx of \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of Instagram and X comments from the same batch of IP addresses, as well as \u201cnefarious accounts from out of the country.\u201d Additionally, some of the accounts, he claimed, were connected with Neville Roy Singham, a left-wing activist with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. O\u2019Leary claimed he reviewed public IRS tax filings that indicate Singham\u2019s Shanghai-based connections funded anti-data center organizations like Alliance for a Better Utah and the Arabella Advisors.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a war going on, I guess, a PR war,\u201d O\u2019Leary said in a social media video explaining how he believed foreign agents were fueling anti-AI social media campaigns.<\/p>\n Regardless of how those comments came to land on his social media posts, Mr. Wonderful said China\u2019s role in stoking AI data center discontent in the U.S. is obvious. \u201cI\u2019m not suggesting it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an irrefutable fact.\u201d<\/p>\n His comments come at a crossroads for tech researchers, who said that kind of rhetoric is doing more harm than good when it comes to building out that AI infrastructure in the first place. Instead, where AI proponents see an enemy, researchers of the politics surrounding data center construction see the potential for a convenient scapegoat.<\/p>\n \u201cChina is a common and comfortable boogeyman in American politics, for right or for wrong,\u201d Flavio Hickel, an assistant professor of political science at Washington College, told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Data centers have indeed been plummeting in popularity over the last several months. A poll from Heatmap Pro last week found seven in 10 Americans now oppose data centers being built near their homes. While AI infrastructure was most unpopular among Democrats, young people, and residents of rural areas, researchers saw a decline in popularity among Americans more broadly.<\/p>\n The Utah data center O\u2019Leary is backing would use more electricity than the entire state does annually. Pre-construction, the 9-gigawatt project is already contentious, drawing crowds of protestors despite Box Elder County commissioners unanimously voting to advance the project last month. But last week, citing \u201calarm surrounding this project,\u201d O\u2019Leary announced the 40,000-acre data center footprint would be slashed in half, though said the negative environmental risks associated with its construction were overstated.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has doubled down on similar claims on China\u2019s role in U.S. data center sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cAny place that\u2019s trying to build data centers is getting bombarded with foreign-directed propaganda to try to block these from being built,\u201d Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a recent Fox Business appearance. \u201cThis is just another attack on the U.S. and our ability to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither O\u2019Leary nor Burgum offered concrete evidence to support their claims. Other think tanks like the Bitcoin Policy Institute and American Energy Institute have issued reports with similar assertions, but have spotted connections between U.S. progressive environmental groups with overseas relationships and funding as opposed to direct connections between these entities and Chinese benefactors.<\/p>\n O\u2019Leary and the Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n By some metrics, China has taken a bite out of the U.S.\u2019s AI advantage. According to the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) 2026 AI Index report, the relative performance of Chinese AI models, such as Dola-Seed 2.0, has closed in on the U.S.\u2019s top model, OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4. China also bests the U.S. in number of publication citations in AI research, as well as industrial robot installations.<\/p>\n Rather than China\u2019s AI advancements being cause for the country to launch an offensive against the U.S. in the so-called AI race, Hickel said it\u2019s more likely AI advocates and the Trump administration\u2014which has advocated for the government to take ownership stakes in AI companies\u2014are wanting to use China as a means of dismissing AI discontent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hickel noted that President Donald Trump\u2019s support base has typically been very tight-knit and loyal, but has begun to see fractures on issues surrounding AI. A recent Gallup poll shows that while 75% of Democrats somewhat or strongly oppose data center construction, that figure is still around 63% for Republicans.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump has really railed against China, their unfair practices with regard to the economy, and fentanyl production,\u201d Hickel said. \u201cTrying to blame some of the rhetoric on China could work politically for them.\u201d<\/p>\n This week, the Pentagon accused Alibaba, Baidu and BYD\u2014among China\u2019s largest companies\u2014of supporting the Chinese military, reiterating its argument that China\u2019s corporate entities present a danger to U.S. national security.<\/p>\n The argument around China\u2019s role in negative data center sentiment comes ahead of midterm election season. According to analysts, some of the administration\u2019s recent moves\u2014including threatening Brazil with tariffs over its alleged illegal deforestation practices\u2014have been a means of garnering support from Democrats and others outside of the administration\u2019s immediate group of supporters.<\/p>\n Ben Green, assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan, told Fortune <\/em>there\u2019s meanwhile abundant signs that antagonism toward data centers is real and organic. \u201cAnyone who doubts it should just show up to any of the communities where people are actually fighting data centers,\u201d Green said. \u201cShow up to a town hall, show up to a city council meeting, and you will just very clearly see that these are people who live in this community are clearly very upset about this.\u201d<\/p>\n The public\u2019s ire toward data centers is just an ingredient in an otherwise perfect storm of anxiety around AI-related job displacement, environmental concerns around water usage and noise pollution, as well as a general disdain toward tech leaders touting the growth of AI amid these concerns, Green suggested.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a broader sense of class politics in this,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are these facilities which bring really close to zero benefits to [the] community, are extracting natural resources, and all of the benefit here is just going to these tech companies and billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n Green also poured cold water on the argument that China is fueling data center discontent, arguing the campaign would require immense amounts of resources and coordination from an adversary to the U.S. that would be better spent on issues outside of AI infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf China is that good at creating that level of change in public opinion across pretty much every facet of society, that\u2019s just a pretty pretty incredible level of influence,\u201d he said. \u201cI would say, if they could do that, then they would probably be weaponizing that for other things beyond data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Kevin #OLeary #Trump #admin #pushing #narrative #China #blame #data #center #hate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As negative sentiment toward data center construction reaches a fever pitch, some AI advocates are blaming China for emerging narratives around the rapid growth of the technology\u2019s infrastructure\u2014and the increased… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8876,1533,4905,173,8995,343,1037,4915,1278,1658,5607,8426,2342,260],"class_list":["post-6575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-admin","tag-blame","tag-center","tag-china","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-data","tag-data-centers","tag-hate","tag-infrastructure","tag-kevin","tag-narrative","tag-oleary","tag-pushing","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}China as a scapegoat<\/strong><\/h2>\n
China\u2019s AI advancements\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Organic AI data center sentiment<\/strong><\/h2>\n